


The Haunting of Black Manor

by Eccentric_Reader



Series: Bellamione One-Shots [10]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bellatrix is lonely, F/F, Fluff, Halloween fluff 2 days after halloween, Haunting, Not much romance but it's there if you squint, One Shot, but it's cute, ghost Bellatrix, mentions of the Black family - Freeform, not my best writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:54:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27353041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eccentric_Reader/pseuds/Eccentric_Reader
Summary: Hermione moves into a new place, rumored to be haunted. Bellatrix just wants her to leave....But why is this stupid human just not doing what she's supposed to?
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Bellatrix Black Lestrange
Series: Bellamione One-Shots [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149503
Comments: 3
Kudos: 121





	The Haunting of Black Manor

**Author's Note:**

> I had this kind of random idea after spending Halloween thinking, "Hmm, what should I write?"  
> And then my brain very helpfully supplied an idea two whole days after halloween.  
> Nevertheless, here it is. The Ghost Au no one asked for.

_ Ugh. Another newcomer. _

Bellatrix drifted up to the rafters as the door swung open, peering down at the new arrival. This wasn’t  _ fair _ \- last time, she’d had a whole century to herself in the old manor, having given it a well-earned reputation of being haunted. But she’d only just chased off the last owners a year ago, and now this- this  _ upstart girl _ was moving in already! Hadn’t she heard the stories?! Well, she probably had, and she probably didn’t care. These kids had no respect.

People just weren’t scared of ghosts anymore.

At least, until they encountered them. The last owners- a couple- had moved in because they knew the house was rumored to be haunted, and wanted it as a sort of ‘fuck you’ to society, or something like that. Bellatrix didn’t tend to spend too long thinking about the reasoning behind human decisions. All she knew was that, one month later, the couple had run, never to be seen again. She’d had quite a bit of fun with those two.

But this  _ new girl _ . There was something about her that intrigued Bellatrix. She seemed innocent, naive almost, and Bellatrix couldn’t  _ wait _ to start messing with her- one of the few times she actually hoped someone would buy the manor so she could have some fun. It had been a while since she’d had a worthy adversary, and this girl looked like she could provide some… entertainment.

Sure enough, not even a month later, New Girl had moved in with all her various belongings (most of which were books) and seemed to be settling in nicely, probably basking in the relief that came with the knowledge that superstitions had been proven false.

Well, they would just have to change that, wouldn’t they?

She started out slow. Little things, like stealing keys and putting them in unlikely places, or rearranging things on shelves. Then, she progressed, knocking things to the ground and moving the occasional painting. There was an art to haunting a house, and Bellatrix was one of the best- unlike her sister, Cissy, or her cousin Regulus (or the never mentioned Andy and Sirius, who had decided they wanted to be  _ friends _ with the pesky little humans), who had never really quite grasped the concept, and could only rarely scare people away.

The girl had definitely started to notice that something was wrong about a month into her residency. She eyed items suspiciously, she made sure to catalogue where she put things, she jumped at sudden noises- in short, she was driving her just a little bit mad.

Time to up her game.

On a peaceful Saturday, at the end of a very long week of patiently withholding from any mischief, the time came. The girl was sitting in the library, reading a book and sipping her tea, when Bellatrix grabbed a row of books on a shelf and threw them to the ground. 

The girl started, dropping the book and nearly spilling the tea. Bellatrix caught a look at the title before moving on- the girl was reading about ghosts. How ironic.

In an instant, she had knocked the chair over and snuffed out the fireplace. A quick wave of her fingers to open up the windows was all it took to send the girl running out of the room.

Bellatrix took off after her, knocking down the occasional painting and cackling all the way (not that the girl could hear her, but it was the… spirit of the thing that counted). She swooped ahead of the girl and stopped just in time for her to run right through her, the poor thing probably feeling a rush of cold, freaking her out even more and causing her to run ever faster.

After a good hour of chasing the girl around the house, allowing her the occasional respite before picking back up again, Bellatrix retreated back to the attic. Today had been an absolute success- the girl would definitely be out of the house by morning.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The girl was  _ not _ out of the house by morning.

Bellatrix had woken up and gone downstairs to find the  _ stupid, stubborn human _ sitting at the kitchen table, buttering a piece of toast and acting as if nothing was wrong.

_ What the hell _ ?! Bellatrix was so mad, a door to a cupboard blew off its hinges and crashed against a wall. The girl took a sip of her tea and flipped a page in her book, the only indication that she noticed it being that her eyes flicked up for a brief second.

Bellatrix swept the collection of spices off of the counter, grabbed a plate and flung it at the door, knocked over a chair….

“If you’re going to throw a temper tantrum, do me a favor and do it outside. I don’t particularly want to pay for any more dishes than I have to already.”

_ What. _ Bellatrix smashed another dish.

The girl just sighed. “I would appreciate it if you would meet me in the library after lunch, I’d like to discuss some things with you.” Then, she got up, folded up a page in her book, and left the room.

That had been… strange. No one had ever tried to talk to Bellatrix before. People just- screamed. And ran. And screamed. And that was fine with her. Those were normal reactions. People didn’t try to talk to ghosts. It wasn’t  _ normal _ . 

But, she supposed, she had known that this girl wasn’t normal from the moment she moved in.

Bellatrix spent the rest of the morning wandering the house, debating whether or not she should go talk to the girl. What would she say? It had been nearly 30 years since she talked to anyone, anyway, and that had been her bicentennial meeting with her sister. She hadn’t talked to anyone  _ new _ since- since she died. Before that, even. And that had been over 200 years ago.

In the end, curiosity won out. Most likely, the girl would try to get her to leave (or threaten to call an exorcist, those people were  _ hilarious _ , and never actually effective), and that would only end in an argument, and maybe another chase, and Bellatrix was never one to pass something like that up.

So she found herself peeking into the library, searching for the girl’s signature bushy hair. She was in the back corner of the library, clearly hard at work with- a clothesline? Some pieces of paper? Humans were  _ weird. _

The girl looked up, and her eyes searched the area. “Are you here?”

She seemed to be waiting for something, then seemed disappointed when it didn’t happen. Frowning, Bellatrix circled around to the girl, taking a look at the papers.

Oh.  _ Oh _ . That was- that was smart. No one had ever tried  _ that _ before, and frankly, not even Bellatrix had thought of it. Probably because she’d never had the desire to talk to humans before.

Right. The girl was waiting for an answer. Should she…? Yes, she should. She was really intrigued now.

The girl was just about to turn away when the paper reading “Yes” flapped up under Bellatrix’s burst of wind.

She immediately lit up, grinning from ear to ear. “Excellent! And you can hear me? This’ll work, you think?”

Another “Yes.”

The girl let out a little squeal of excitement. “Good! I wasn’t sure, at first, but I figured I might as well try it out. So. I have questions. What’s your name? How old are you? How long have you been haunting this house? What’s your- no, wait, I already asked that.”

Wow, her head already hurt. It really had been far too long since she’d had a conversation, much less with anyone this excitable.

B-E-L-L-A-T-R-I-X

The girl grinned. “Bellatrix? My name’s Hermione Granger. Isn’t that a star, or something? Part of Orion? Kind of like his armpit, or something, right?”

Bellatrix bristled. She was not an  _ armpit _ . How  _ dare _ she suggest such a thing. 

The gi-  _ Hermione’s _ face fell. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have- touchy subject? I can go on. How old are you?”

2-4-6

Her eyes widened. “ _ 246 _ ? That’s really old! I mean, no offense, ugh, I’m not good at this conversation thing, I always say the wrong thing, I’m so sorry-”

I-T-S-F-I-N-E

She didn’t know why she said that. But she had looked so upset, and something about her wide eyes had made Bellatrix feel… pity? Sadness? It couldn’t be compassion. Bellatrix didn’t  _ do _ compassion. It wasn’t her  _ style _ .

“So why do you haunt people?”

Bellatrix’s brain grinded to a halt. Why did she haunt people? No one had ever asked her that before. Sure, it was fun, but there were other things that ghosts could do. She confined herself to this lonely manor- for what?

F-A-M-I-L-Y-T-R-A-D-T-I-O-N

“Huh. I guess that- makes sense. So you have other family? Where are they? What are they like? Do they haunt houses too? Wait, that’s a stupid question, you just said it was a family tradition. But what happens if you don’t want to haunt houses?”

Oh, boy.

1-O-T-H-E-R-M-A-N-O-R-S-2-B-A-D-A-T-H-A-U-N-T-I-N-G-3-D-I-S-O-W-N-E-D

Her eyes widened. “You get  _ disowned _ ? But wait- who disowns you? Do you have parents? I mean, yes, you obviously have parents, but are they, like, in charge of the family? But what about their parents?”

They were going to need to get a more efficient way to do this, Bellatrix thought as she answered her never ending stream of questions. Despite that- she liked talking to Hermione. 

Perhaps there was more to death than chasing people away.

**Author's Note:**

> This probably won't be extended, just a cute thought I had fitting the theme of halloween.


End file.
